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http://www.planet-f1.com/News/Story_...380808,00.html Quote:
Williams have stunned F1 by announcing that Mark Webber will be replaced by Alex Wurz for the 2007 season.
No explanation has been provided for the Aussie's unexpected and sudden exit, although his departure does signal a likely move to move Renault.
With paddock sources indicating that Michael Schumacher will be partnered by Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari, and Wurz promoted to partner Nico Rosberg, the Flavio Briatore-managed Webber is being tipped to race alongside Giancarlo Fisichella at the Flavio Briatore-run Renault next season.
Nonetheless, the speed of Webber's departure has come as a surprise. Only four days ago at Hockenheim, Webber spoke optimistically of the two parties agreeing a contract extension.
"As much as taking great pleasure in confirming Alex and Nico for next season, I must also commend Mark Webber for his contribution to the team over the past two seasons, as he has been a credit to himself and Williams and has never let up in his pursuit of competitive success," Williams said in Wednesday's press release.
"I know Mark will give his all until the end of the season and we wish him well in his future arrangements."
Williams insisted that Webber will remain with the team until the end of the season and ruled out a repeat of the McLaren/Montoya debacle when the Colombian was instantly booted out of the team after announcing that he would be moving to NASCAR.
Wurz, meanwhile, returns to F1's top table after over five years of fulfilling thankless duties as McLaren and then Williams' test driver.
"Alex will be a great racing driver for us as he is one of the few men I have seen in a wheel-banging confrontation with Michael Schumacher and come out on top," said Williams as he proved that his memory is not fading.
"Alex brings us important technical continuity and understanding of the car and as well as being an excellent communicator with our engineers, he is ultra-competitive during the Friday 'full tank' practice sessions."
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Good decision by Williams, they will be making good saving on the salary bill; and they need all the monetary resources to pull themselves out of mid-field rut. Next year Toyota engine would be also a help in this.
That's pretty good considering that Wurz has some good past experience with Benetton for a couple of years.
Webber should seriously go to a team which is more reliable than Williams this season. Look at the no. of DNFs he has this season.
What will happen to our own Karthikeyan. Will he become the 1st test driver or what?
With a TOYOTA punching at the back we may see Williams as a front runner next year.
There is a big question about Karthikeyan's future in Williams, bcz TATA may not be interested to sponsor a car with TOYOTA logo on it. We will need to wait to see the outcome.
I don't know if Williams have made the right decision by replacing Webber with Wurz who is a test driver, he may have good experience in testing but doesn't have that good racing skills. They could have hired a new talent insted.
Now there is also a rumor that Webber is strongly linked to Renault and i think he will move to renault as Kimi is almost surely going to move to Ferrari and also Renault rate him highly.
Weber can go to RBR... they would like his talent and partnering with Coulthard will make it a good lineup!
But it might turn out that Kimi will drive for Ferrari and Weber will be picked up by renault as flavio is his manager.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ksethuram With a TOYOTA punching at the back we may see Williams as a front runner next year.
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the cosworth V8s were among the strongest engines on the grid this yr..
suprised ?
the reason being..
a normal engine is supposed to last 2 race weekends ( 1400km )
what cosworth did..
was make an engine that is designed to last for only 1100-1200km..
thus automatically increasing performance..
they could do that as alex wurz running the 3rd car for williams would do all the running required to gather data..
leaving the race drivers a minimum workload
this obviously cannot be a long term solution..
thus the change over to toyota power
so i'm not expecting them to gain a lot in terms of performance..
they will benefit on the marketing & sponsors side though
coming to webber..
Quote:
Q. Mark, would you please clarify if it was your decision to leave Williams or the option was on their side and they simply failed to take it up?
MW: Williams had a choice to take an option up which was for a further two years and they weren’t in a position to do that so we agreed that we would try to make it work, even if they couldn’t have come to an agreement with the original terms in place, we would try and stay there and work a new deal from there. But still we couldn’t and in the end we decided to… Flavio said OK, let’s go on the market and go from there.
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Source : F1 live
i'm pretty sure he's close to signing with another team..
can give flavio credit for that.. man's smart
where remains to be seen though..
if kimi doesnt go to renault.. it could be him..
kovalainen hasnt got the experience to compete for the constructors
red bull.. alongside coulthard.. maybe..
i'm not ruling out mclaren even.. alongside alonso
F1 is a funny business..
( i rate webber above de la rosa )
it all hinges on a finnish phenom !
Webber moving to Renault will be a very good move for him. That guy needs good car, wat he used to do in qualifying in Jaguar, im sure will do better in competative car.
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